Traditional approaches to providing call center services have generally employed a combination of automated interactive voice response (IVR) systems and human call service agents. In operation, an incoming call will be interfaced with an automated IVR system as a first point of contact with a service user caller. If the user's issue is resolved by the information offered in the IVR system then there is no need to transfer the service user's call to a human Customer Service Agent (CSA). On the other hand, if the service user's issue cannot be resolved using the IVR system, as is more often the case as products and services have become more complex, the user's call may be escalated and eventually transferred to a human call service agent (CSA).
Current approaches for transferring a user's call from an IVR system to a CSA have several drawbacks. One drawback has to do with retention of information that a service user has entered in response to prompts from the IVR portion of the system. Current approaches offer little consistency as to what user-supplied information (if any) makes it from the IVR to a CSA when a service user's call is transferred.
Some progress has been made in transferring a limited amount of user-supplied information to an upstream CSA when a service user is transferred from an automated IVR system. For example, some approaches have featured the routing of limited information using the ANI (automatic number identification) field which is transferred between various systems in a call center. Other approaches have modified the ANI to potentially pass more information (such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,661,882, entitled System And Method for Automated Telephone Message Routing Using an Altered ANI). Still other call center approaches systems involve customer entered information (phone number, account id) or potentially identifying a particular skill level of the agent (such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,903, entitled Automatic Call Distribution Based On Matching Required Skills With Agents Skills) from the IVR to a CSA. While the above mentioned approaches are able to pass along a limited amount of information between various components of a call center, these approaches are limited to passing along a portion of extrinsic information, which may be of only marginal value for speedy and satisfactory completion of a service call.
One shortcoming that has not been satisfactorily addressed by current approaches is another problem that is likely to occur when a service user is transferred from an IVR to a CSA. The CSA might have the benefit of knowing the name and account number of the service user, however, the CSA does not know much else. Because of this, the CSA is likely to repeat the same information that the service user has already listened to using the IVR system. This is not especially desirable since the service user did not find the information that is now being repeated to him all that helpful the first time around, and is likely the reason that the service user has requested to speak to a human CSA.
Under current approaches, the CSA does not know what information the service user has previously heard or has been offered the option of listening to unless the CSA verbally questions the service user. Even under ideal circumstances, such as might be the case where a CSA possesses exceptional communication skills, relying on the service user for a summary of what information and options had already been provided to the user is not ideal for reasons including that the service user may have exhausted his/her patience during the IVR portion of the call or that the user may not be a good communicator particularly if the user has to contact the call center for help using a complex product or service that the service user really does not understand in the first place.
In sum, the aforementioned shortcomings of lost information and repeated information may result in low customer satisfaction and less than optimal efficiency in the time that is required to complete a service call.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method and system which reduces the likelihood that a CSA will unknowingly repeat information that a service user has already heard. Also, it is desirable to provide a method and system which minimizes requests for the service user to report previously heard or offered information to the CSA. Additionally, it would be desirable to provide a system and method which may reduce the amount of time required to provide service to a user and improve call center efficiency by informing a CSA of the history and details of the service user's interaction with an IVR system.